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Thursday, 19 August 2010

Forget The Da Vinci Code; The QR Code Reveals All

"The QR Code (Quick Response Code) is a 2-dimensional matrix code. It can encode up to 2509 numeric or 1520 alphanumeric characters and offers three levels of error detection. The smallest QR Code measures 21 X 21 cells (each cell encodes one bit) and can grow in increments of 4 cells to a maximum size of 105 X 105 cells. The squares in the bottom left, top left, and top right corners are locator patterns.

The QR Code was developed in Japan by the Nippondenso Company; it was introduced in 1994 at the Japan Scan-Tech show and was submitted to AIM for consideration as a standard in 1996."

QR Codes can be read, or "scanned" by any mobile smartphone that has a camera and an application to decode them. They can be read both vertically and horizontally - so they can be read sideways and even upside-down as well as the "normal" conventional way up.What's so groundbreaking about the QR Code is that its able to store up to several hundred times the amount of data carried by ordinary bar codes. Because of this major benefit, the potential of what QR Codes can do has exploded over the last few years.

So; when scanned QR Codes can carry simple text, like this:They can even carry links to websites, like this:The advertising industry has taken to QR Codes like a duck to water, increasingly using them within their marketing campaigns (click on the images to scan the QR Codes more easily):

Normally having a scrambled and seemingly undecipherable visual, the codes are becoming more alluring and enticing, with patterns and colours being integrated - even brand conscious as the following QR's show:

Unfortunately, this system could be used to the detriment of humanity - this person below gets the idea...

IBM is widely known for their part in the Holocaust through devising a heartless strategy using index machinery technology in transporting Jews to concentration camps and deciding their fate be it extermination, slave labour or to be put through medical experimentation depending on their personal characteristics (i.e. gender, age etc.). Imagine having a QR Code embedded into your skin, which when scanned reveals all sorts of private and personal information about yourself? Your financial, educational, health and employment records could be all stored within a QR Code.

So far QR Codes have been introduced to the world as a vehicle for delivering information within the realms of entertainment and general knowledge; however AYTD wouldn't be surprised to see the QR Code being used in a more underhanded manner, that could well affect the way we live.